Orange pride goes beyond the college game. Syracuse fans follow their favorite players through the NBA, and frankly there has been little for Orange fans to be proud of in the professional game. There is Carmelo Anthony of course but there have been very few other successes in the NBA. Michael Carter-Williams looked promising, winning Rookie of the Year but he has regressed in his sophomore season and has been called out in a big way.
An article published on Grantland.com called out the most inefficient shooters in the league. Among the five players mentioned were two former Syracuse players, Michael Carter-Williams and Dion Waiters.
This is an indicator of what many Orange fans already know. For whatever reason, in general, Syracuse players just don’t transition well to the NBA. Well, actually there is a reason. Jim Boeheim is a great college coach and he has been at the center of a great basketball program for nearly forty years. He wins and wins often but he is not a coach who puts his players in a good position to succeed at the next level.
This goes beyond the 2-3 zone which is virtually never played in the NBA because of the defensive three second rule. Syracuse basketball tends to play an offense that relies heavily on the guards and their ability to put up shots.
Boeheim has found a system on both sides of the ball that works well for the college game. Needless to say it just doesn’t translate. One could argue that is the reason so many top recruits have elected to go elsewhere, most recently Thomas Bryant.
With all of that being said, there are many ways to defend Boeheim’s running of the Syracuse program. His job is to win college games and does that better than almost any coach in the country.
Coaches like John Calipari defend their one and done programs by saying it is their job to prepare kids for the NBA because college is all about preparing kids to get a job.
Jim Boeheim is just not like Coach Cal and that is what defines this program. It is a college program, not a pre-NBA program. As a result, Syracuse is not represented with superstars in the NBA.
Posted: Logan Grossman 
One response to “Does Boeheim’s Style Hinder NBA Prospects?”
Interesting in that there may be a “chicken or the egg” aspect at work. Boeheim (as he notes in his book) and SU can’t typically recruit against the elite basketball programs for the very top-level talent. Are they turned off by the SU style of pla?Y or are there simply other programs with a greater tradition in more desirable locales that would be preferred by the Thomas Bryant’s of the world regardless of the style of play? So it may not be that his style hinders development for the NBA, but that he simply will never get as much NBA talent to work with, making the program’s success all the more impressive.
Also, maybe some of the recent SU players who are in the NBA should have stayed at SU longer (in terms of development for the NBA). Dion Waiters played 24 minutes/game in his sophomore year and was never a starter (although he managed to get drafted 4th overall). Ennis had a great freshman season, but maybe left too soon as well. MCW shot under 40% as a sophomore (and under 30% from the college 3-point line), so maybe no surprise that he still isn’t shooting well.